Breaking News! Announcing CAFÉ AU LAIT, the novel!

This is what happens when you Google yourself at 1AM. You stumble across a PDF file with your name, Liane Spicer. Next to it you see the title of your about-to-be-released novel, and it stops you in your tracks. Interesting. You have been careful to never mention the title of said novel online anywhere, since you've heard that publishers can change to a title they consider more marketable. You scratch your head and click on the main link. A blank page comes up. Hmm. There's another link that says View as HTML, so you click there and... presto! It's a page of book titles: January 2008 IPDA book update!

Interestinger and interestinger. You don't have a clue what IPDA is, naturally, but your name is in there somewhere, along with the title of your novel! So you use the 'find' feature on the browser, enter your name, and...

It's official! CAFÉ AU LAIT by Liane Spicer is on a mass market lead titles list for 2008! You have no idea what 'lead titles list' actually means, but it sounds good! It's a Leisure title, and Wikipedia informs you that Leisure is an imprint of Dorchester, your publisher, but it's a horror imprint. Your eyes bug. You skedaddle over to the publisher's website and ascertain that Leisure does, in fact, publish romance. You wipe the sweat off your brow. Had you going for a moment there! Shame on you, Wiki!

The mysterious webpage even gives an On Sale Date: 8/26/08

Finally, it's all beginning to seem real to you. You're a writer!

A few thank-you notes are in order:

• Thank you, M.B., for your gentle urging all those years ago to pursue my writing dream. There's been a lot of water under lots of bridges, but when I think of the beginning it's you I think of.
• Thank you, Vaughn, for telling me (back in Miami when you first read the manuscript) that I was a writer, even though I insisted that I hadn't earned the title since I hadn't published anything. Thank you too for your yeoman service as my first reader and critic.
• Thank you, sis, for believing in me, always, always, always.
• Thank you, D, for being a true friend through all my ups and downs.
• Thank you, Rich, for being the great son that you are - and for all the computer and internet stuff.
• Thank you, blog buddies, for the fellowship over the past six months of this journey to publication.
• And thank you, all you writers, agents and editors out there, for the innumerable websites, blogs and articles where you provide newbie writers with free information on both the craft of writing and the business of publishing. Special thanks to those I've listed on the 'Links' page.
  

Gosh, that sounds like one of those soggy Oscar acceptance speeches. But I mean every word.

UPDATE: According to author Rowan Coleman over at Novel Racers, "...normally a lead title means your publishers are putting it top of their submissions list for which ever months your book is published in. They are telling the trade they consider it a lead title and worth buying in great quantities."

Thanks for the info, Rowan. This doesn't sound like a bad thing at all!